Villa Rosenthal, Jena
DER FALL RUDOLF -
Wie die Moderne im Auftrag der KoKo gefälscht wurde
25.06. - 20.08.2016
Carl Gerhardt Rudolf, born 1922 in Erfurt, worked as a historian in the
Institute of History at the German Academy of the Sciences in East Berlin.
In 1966, he was forcibly transferred to Potsdam to the Academy of the
Ministry for State Security (MfS). He added personally made repro-
ductions of modern art to his theoretical writings, which are essentially
devoted to the phenomenon of the aura of a work of art in the age of its
reproducibility. They were intended to prove his theory of a “projected
aura” attributed to the work by the viewer. Beginning in the 1960s, Rudolf
was listed by the MfS as an unofficial collaborator under the cover name
of Rembrandt. He was assigned to the Modern Art Division for the pur-
pose of forging works in order to obtain foreign currency. The autodidact
often had only single-aspect illustrations to make reference to, which
could lead to deviations from the original. It was also very common to
‘extend’ the oeuvre of specific artist. There is no complete list of the for-
ged works; the poor state of the documents at hand in the Stasi Records
Archive is due to the destruction of documents around 1989. After Ger-
man reunification, Rudolf lived in Venice until his death in 2012 and
probably earned a living by selling works he had produced earlier. His
case was made public when his nephew offered a Piet Mondrian work
from Rudolf’s estate to an auction house. The review of his artistic work is
ongoing.
Exhibition view Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, 2016
Exhibition view Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, 2016
Exhibition view Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, 2016
Exhibition view Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, 2016
Exhibition view Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, 2016
Exhibitionview Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena
Carl Gerhardt Rudolf, Vincent van Gogh, Portrait Dr. Gachet (1890)
Exhibitionview Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, 2016
Carl Gerhardt Rudolf, Kurt Schwitters, Weißes Relief (1924-27)
foreground: Carl Gerhardt Rudolf, Kurt Schwitters, Vertikal (1923)
Exhibition view Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, 2016
Carl Gerhardt Rudolf, Kurt Schwitters, Weißes Relief (1924-27)
Exhibition view Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, 2016
Carl Gerhardt Rudolf, Kurt Schwitters, Vertikal (1923)
Exhibition view Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, 2016
Carl Gerhardt Rudolf, Notizen zu Walter Benjamin: Das Kunstwerk im
Zeitalter der technischen Reproduzierbarkeit
Exhibition view Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, 2016
Carl Gerhardt Rudolf, Piet Mondrian, Komposition mit großer roter
Fläche, Gelb, Schwarz, Grau und Blau (1921)
Exhibition view Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, 2016
Carl Gerhardt Rudolf, Kurt Schwitters, Merz 1926, Cicero (1926)
Exhibition view Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, 2016
Carl Gerhardt Rudolf, Marcel Duchamp, La broyeuse de chocolat
(1914)
Exhibition view Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, 2016
Carl Gerhardt Rudolf, Kurt Schwitters, Mz 448, Moscow (1922)
Exhibition view Der Fall Rudolf, Villa Rosenthal, Jena, 2016
